Hey All! It has been a crazy week for me, so
this week's Q&A will be a short one. I'm
also working on a review of the Guardian
Heroes re-release, so keep an eye
out for that.

On to the questions...

The Letters

Shining Ys

Wheels, I would like to answer some of your
burning queries (or "hot topics" if you
will):

2. How do
you think XSEED was able to succeed with
Falcom games where others failed?

I think the quality of the games XSEED
released, the time in which they released
them, and the platform they released them on
worked to their advantage more than other
Falcom games released in the past. By 2010,
what RPGs (action or otherwise) were really
coming out for the PSP? I mean you had the
excellent Persona
3 Portable in July, but as far as I
can remember the platform was hurting for
quality games period. Both Ys Seven
and Ys:
Oath in Felghana were very good
action RPGs that worked well on the PSP, and
they reviewed well and got a decent amount
of pickup in the press (props to XSEED for
that one - there were localization blogs and
lots of interviews with XSEED employees, and
the games were talked about on various
podcasts around the time of release as
well). Yes, Ys Seven could be pretty
chatty at times, but what was there was
localized well, which always helps. Ys I&II
Chronicles is (from what I've read
anyway, I've only played this version)
probably the best version of the first two
games in existence yet. And Oath in
Felghana is excellent from top to
bottom.

Wheels

This
is a great point, there wasn't
that much to be excited about
for the PSP other than a few
Atlus and Square Enix releases,
and then XSEED came along and
changed all that. Of course the
quality of the titles absolutely
had to do with their success. I
wonder if perhaps the small, but
loyal group of Falcom fans out
there also played some part in
helping spread the word about
these games. They certainly made
me interested in anything Falcom
produces from now on. It seems
like even Falcom is pleased with
the partnership, so I expect
even more Falcom goodness in the
future from XSEED. I just wish
people had the chance to play Oath
in Felghana on PC, as
I think it plays even better
than the PC version. As for Ys
Seven, who cares if
it's chatty? The combat is
amazing.

But all of this is magnified when compared
to Falcom releases in the past. The first
two Ys
games were released on the
Turbografx/PC-Engine, which sold awfully in
America. The third game was on SNES and
Genesis, but wasn't much like the other Ys
games (and wasn't very good, either, in my
opinion). Then the next several games were
published (and in the case of Ys IV,
developed) by many different people for a
variety of systems, but most were never
released in America, so the brand languished
for another bunch of years until Ys VI
came out in 2005, which seemed a bit late to
release a PS2 game at the time. Personally,
I had no idea there even was an Ys PS2
game until I got into the Felghana
on PSP, so I'm inclined to think none of
these games were marketed very well.

Wheels

Another
fair point, the Falcom releases
in the past have been pretty
spotty, and were often
lackluster ports of Falcom's
originals to other platforms. I
think the fact that we're
finally getting the actual
Falcom versions for once also
plays a big part. Did you know
the three different versions of
Ys III that
were released in the US were all
developed by different
companies, and play differently
(and are all terrible)? I think
it's safe to say Falcom's
original versions are usually
the best, and now we're getting
that. I think it's safe to say Ys
VI wasn't marketed all
that well, but it also had a
questionable localization which
probably turned some people off.
Let's not even get into the
awful load times of the PSP
version...

As for the rest of their games in the 90s,
they were released on platforms with very
small install bases, such as the Sega CD (Popful Mail),
N-Gage (Xanadu
Next), or were only released in
Japan. So by 2010, who had heard of Nihon
Falcom? No one but the hardest of hardcore.
But I really do think the state of the PSP
market in 2009 and 2010 worked to XSEEDs
advantage, because PSP owners such as myself
were starving for some quality content, and
then Ys
showed up.

Wheels

That's
a fair point, but the Lunar
games also first appeared on
Sega CD, and seemed to be
legendary enough that the
eventual PS1 ports sold quite
well (apparently they could have
been made "greatest hits"
titles, but Working Designs
refused). Anyway, finer points
aside, it absolutely was the
perfect time for XSEED to
release these games, and I'm
glad it has worked out for them.
I think now instead of being
starved for PSP content, we're
starved for more Falcom content!

3. What
long dormant RPG series do you want to see
make a return?

SHINING
FORCE. No, not the dumb recent
releases like EXA or Shining Tears
or whatever. The classic Genesis/Sega
CD/Saturn strategy games where you moved a
party of ~12 people around on a battlefield
much like Fire
Emblem or Advance Wars. I always
thought they were great "strategy-lite"
(meaning not stupidly difficult or grindy
like Tactics
Ogre or yes, even Final Fantasy
Tactics) titles where you don't
have to worry about stupid things like
battlefield height or which way characters
are facing. It's like this: your archer guy
can attack either 2 or 3 squares away
depending on his weapon, your sword guy can
attack right next to him, they all can move
X, Y, or Z spaces from their current spot,
and your goal is to destroy all the enemies
or the boss. The games would throw different
challenges at you though, such as zombies
appearing halfway through the battle, pieces
of the map grid falling into a giant pit, or
enemies who can attack in any cardinal
direction from where they sit across the
whole map (the Prism Flowers are very
memorable to those of us who played through
Shining
Force II). The stories were
barebones anime cliches, but that was fine
because you played the game really to level
up your guys and find your own way to beat
the battles.

Wheels

I couldn't agree with this more,
as I'm sure you can tell with
how often I take the opportunity
to talk about Shining
Force. The games were
so easy to play, but also
required a good amount of
critical thinking, especially on
tougher difficulties. I think
this is why SRPGs are such a
niche genre these days. Your
average gamer isn't interesting
in playing something so complex.
The problem is, outside of the Valkyria
Chronicles team, I'm
not sure I trust anyone at Sega
to make another good Shining
Force SRPG.

I guess what I'm saying is I really like the
core gameplay of strategy RPGs, but cannot
stand the micromanaging that seems to exist
in so many of them. The Shining Force
series really struck a great balance of
gameplay and micromanagement.

I hope my answers to your fiery subjects
were sufficient. Keep up the good work!

-BuckTwenty

Wheels

Well
I do love that micromanaging,
but I'd gladly pass it up for
more Shining Force!
Here's hope the series will come
back some day.

Anyway, thanks for the great
questions...err answers!

Know Your Role

Dear Wheels,

With all due respect, I must at this point
disagree with a statement you responded to
on your last "ask wheels" segment. The
letter writer matter-of-factly stated that
"the term RPG is a misnomer".
No, the term is NOT a misnomer. The term is
a direct, relevant link to the genre which
the RPG started from- something you, as a
staff member of RPGamer, should already be
aware of. Games like Dungeons and
Dragons, for instance- the
pen-and-paper "role playing game". These
games formed the foundation for how we view
RPGs today. Indeed, D+D's
system of experience, random battles, turn
based combat... these things are the DIRECT
predecessor to today's RPG systems, no
matter how gussied up. The Final
Fantasies, the Dragon
Warriors, the Chrono
Triggers- everything you see today
on console or PC owes its very existence to
these early multiplayer-driven experiences.

Wheels

This is a fair point, I shouldn't
have let the argument just go past
without much comment. Whatever the
literal meaning of "role-playing",
the term RPG in video terms refers
to very specific types of games. I
apologize for not making this exact
point.

To say "every game is an RPG" just because
you "play a role" is as grossly inaccurate
as calling Quake a platformer just
because there are platforms you jump on from
time to time.
You can't simply take a single line and make
an across the board declaration of a genre
based upon that. The RPG isn't just a game
where you "play a role", it is a genre with
its own checkered history, its own gameplay
design accomplishments... its own roots.
THAT is where the name comes from- the name
comes from the genre's ROOTS, and gamers new
and old would do well to remember those
roots.

-Daniel

Wheels

This is absolutely correct. This
would be like saying every game is a
platformer because they all contain
some kind of "platform" or something
like this. The literal meaning of
these terms may not mach up with
exactly what the games are, but they
are the terms that have become
common place to describe very
specific genres of games. Again, I
apologize for letting the point
slide past last week! Thanks for
correcting me.

IN
CLOSING

That's it for this episode!

See you all next week, where someone has
answered my challenge to combine Eastern and
Western RPG franchises.